‘Singularities Effect’ drives Josh Harris’ dream for MIT Media Lab

Web impresario Josh Harris burned through millions during the dot-com boom.
Following the 2009 release of We Live in Public, which documented Harris' bizarre rise and
fall, the Pseudo.com founder earned his living for a year by
playing high-stakes poker in California.

Now Harris is back with a new plan: He wants to run the MIT Media Lab. The Boston-area think tank has for 25 years
championed sociable media, wearable computing and interfaces capable of "fundamentally
transforming our most basic notions of human capabilities and daily
life," according to its website. The Lab will be hiring a new
director and wants input about candidates.

In this Wired exclusive, Harris lays out his Singularities
Effect stump speech for the MIT Media Lab
directorship, saying he wants to accelerate the creation of
"billions of human brains weaved together in a vast data net that
form a new, higher-level intelligence."

By Josh Harris

There was a time in the 1990s when I was one of those hot, rich,
internet entrepreneurs everyone talked about and envied. Everywhere
I went, doors opened and people glad-handed me to distraction. Back
in New York City now after a 10-year absence and with the millions
gone, I live in an anti-universe where, for better and worse, no
one bothers me.

Considering that the two companies I founded -- Jupiter Research
and Pseudo Programs -- were critical drivers of New York City's
technology boom in the 1990s, you would think the city would
welcome me back with open arms.

Guess again.

The business and venture-capital guys must have seen the piece
on CNBC last year where I told reporter David Faber the truth --
that it was all a Ponzi scheme and that Pseudo was an "art project."

A couple years ago, We Live in Public, a documentary
film starring me, won the Sundance Grand Jury Prize. I thought the
worldwide notoriety would reinvigorate my career, though there is
some confusion about exactly what my career is. I went on a bit of
a tour with the film thinking maybe this is the traction needed to
get my Wired City project off the ground. Nope. Just a bunch of
business types barely concealing their "this guy is a kook"
thinking as I explained my project. (Maybe they were having
flashbacks from the film, which showed me on the crapper taking
business calls.)

Some people argue that my ability to see the future is downright
preternatural. I was visited by the Singularities in 1992. They
insisted I make "Launder My Head" [a video featuring animated
figures, with PCs for heads, that discuss the hidden meaning of
Gilligan's Island] in order to spread the word that they
were coming and describe a little about who they were. You might
say I am the real-life version of Howard Beale from the film
Network. Rightfully you should suspect that I am a bit
crazy, but I can assure you I started out normal, just like
you.

Others would say that I am the "Warhol of the web." I would
argue that my special gift is the ability to use technology to
create the future in the present. And of course, I do it with great
showmanship.